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Abstract
The tricky terrain of intercultural communication within the pressure-cooker environment of creating new performance work is explored through the experiences of five Australians working with 55 artists in Hanoi, Vietnam on a project called Through the Eyes of the Phoenix. Key cultural communication issues such as the concept of ‘face’, identity, translation, adaptability, ambiguity tolerance, empathy, enmeshment and the development of shared understandings are examined in relation to theories of high and low context cultures and individualist/collectivist frameworks. The experiences of both Australian and Vietnamese artists are foregrounded, revealing the importance of other intercultural communication modes such as visual, kinaesthetic and tactile languages as well as the languages of their art forms. Immersion in social activities and the importance of the emotional domain are also highlighted as essential factors to survive and thrive in intense creative collaborations across cultures. These dance perspectives, embedded in practice, provide alternative contributions to the messy complexities of intercultural communication.
Notes
1. From 1988, following an invitation for Dance North (of which I was artistic Director) to tour Thailand, Laos, Burma (Myanmar) and Vietnam, I began once or twice yearly trips to Vietnam until 2000. These visits were often partially supported by the Australian and Vietnamese governments and sometimes at my own expense or with other sources of funding. My previous works commissioned for different projects had, in retrospect, been rather ‘safe’ dealing with Vietnamese legends and historical figures re-interpreted in a contemporary dance context. They probably (though unintentionally) provided a somewhat romantic view of Vietnam acceptable to the Ministry of Culture, which censored all cultural programmes.
2. My study of intercultural communication was undertaken whilst writing a practice-based PhD “Making Intercultural Dance in Vietnam” in which the Phoenix Project was the primary case study.
3. Other roles and key artists in Through the Eyes of the Phoenix were: Lighting, Luong Van Minh; Guest artist and Director of Vietnam Opera Ballet Theatre (VNOBT), Cong Nhac; Coordinating Manager and Vice-Director of VNOBT, Pham Anh Phuong; Conductor, An Ngoc; Solo violin, Manh Hung; Singers, Manh Chung and Kim Tien; dancers and musicians of the Vietnam Opera Ballet Theatre.
4. Vietnam and its people are deeply connected through a long and tragic history of colonialism, with continual wars of conquest and independence waged for over 1,000 years until the fall of Saigon in 1975.
5. By 2007, family structures were changing and when I visited dance friends they now lived in a unit with their immediate family. However, contact with the extended family was still often on a daily basis, rather than the weekly or less often pattern in countries like Australia.
6. The most dramatic example of this communicative mode in my experience occurred in a previous project Land of Waiting Souls involving a Western-style orchestra working with Vietnam's most celebrated traditional ensemble Thang Long, to a commissioned score by Trong Dai. Our final rehearsal at the Hanoi Opera House went well and so I did not call the cast in until around 4 p.m. the following day for class and notes prior to the sold-out premiere. At 5 p.m. I was quietly informed that the Thang Long Ensemble had flown to Russia that morning. I was aghast that these plans had not been brought to my attention or somehow surfaced earlier. I was assured that the problem had been solved as the conductor and musicians had stayed behind after the final dress rehearsal the previous evening until 3 a.m. to make a recording. Unfortunately, neither I nor the dancers had been there to verify tempi and there was no time to rehearse before the opening. Sweating profusely and helplessly off stage, I could only applaud the dancers’ aplomb in adjusting to tempi so speedy they looked as if a fast forward button had been pressed or as if they were in a slow motion video.
7. There is an interesting paradox within collectivist cultures in Asia and elsewhere. Communal values and social structures often exist within rigid, hierarchical national and political frameworks featuring autocratic leadership, headed by powerful and charismatic individuals. This arguably is a modern version of a past in which communal living existed within a strict hierarchy of power including the Emperor with his Generals and Mandarins. The difference of course is that the Emperor was believed to be a representative of the gods or in many cases an incarnation of a supreme heavenly being, whereas modern leaders only wield power on earth.
8. For a more detailed explanation of the ‘accented’ body in dance, see Stock Citation2009.
9. Yong, Tina, personal interview, Melbourne, 11 June 1997.
10. Cultural, political and economic reasons for this situation are discussed in Stock Citation2003.
11. Tran, Ngoc Hien, personal interview (translated by Tran Thanh Mai), Hanoi, 9 December 1997.
12. Tran, Bích Huong, personal interview (translated by Tran Thanh Mai), Hanoi, 9 December 1997.
13. Luu Thi Thu Lan, personal interview (translated by Tran Thanh Mai), Hanoi, 11 December 1997.
14. See Nguyen Dình-Hoa, “A Brief Look at Vietnamese Culture”, Journal of Vietnamese Studies, 1 (1) (1988), 4–10.
15. An intercultural trade mission might pay for expensive, skilled interpreters but arts projects rarely have these funds.
16. Pearce, Michael, personal interview, Melbourne, 12 June 1997.
17. Pearce, Michael, personal interview, Melbourne, 12 June 1997.
18. Yong, Tina, personal interview, Melbourne, 11 June 1997.
19. Tran, Bích Huong, personal interview (translated by Tran Thanh Mai), Hanoi, 9 December 1997.
20. Le, Vu Long, personal interview (translated by Tran Thanh Mai), Hanoi, 6 February 1998.
21. Pearce, Michael, op. cit.
22. In Vietnam designers work on a commission basis so the Vietnamese artists were surprised to see how closely Michael collaborated with the rest of the team and the fact that he attended rehearsals.
23. Le, Vu Long, op. cit.
24. Tran, Van Hai, op. cit.
25. Some cultural taboos are rapidly breaking down amongst young people in Vietnam. I have observed easier physical social contact between the sexes as contemporary globalised culture permeates lifestyles.
26. The dance studio was a ramshackle stand-alone building in the middle of a field in which buffaloes roamed, in the midst of a run-down arts compound. Electricity often did not work, the floor surface verged on dangerous and we were often interrupted by workers and soldiers coming in to observe during their work breaks, smoking and chatting loudly. There was no door to close to prevent such interruptions.
27. Sun, Ping, personal interview, Melbourne, 13 June 1997.
28. Pearce, Michael, op. cit.
29. Duyen means predestined and nghiep is the word for karma, whilst nhân duyen can be translated as predestined affinity. These terms often refer to lifelong partnerships such as marriage.
30. Pearce, Michael, personal communication.
31. Vu, Mai Thu, personal interview, Hanoi, 29 December 1997.
32. Interviews are not always reliable. Therefore, despite the frankness and informality of my interviews with the dancers, I acknowledge a favourable bias in many comments.